Anthrax Scare Has Residents on Guard

By HANNAN ADELY

For Dawn Bates, opening the mail has become a peculiar ritual. "I don't just touch my mail like I usually would," Bates said. "I look in the box before I touch anything. If there's anything in there that I'm not aware of, I don't touch it. I go get gloves and then I take it to the corner and dump it in the garbage."

The recent anthrax scare has everyone on alert, and here in the Bronx, many residents like Bates are taking precautions.

Luisa Camilo, of Fordham Bedford, is concerned mostly about her children. She instructs her 13-year-old daughter not to open the mail until she arrives home from work. "I don't open letters unless I know who's sending them," she said.

Camilo fears for her son, who works for Telemundo, a Spanish news station, since many media outlets have already been struck by anthrax-tainted mail. "All these TV stations are getting anthrax," Camilo said. "My son's boss warned everyone to be careful."

As new reports of anthrax contamination continue to arise, postal workers seem most at risk. But one local worker at the Jerome Avenue Post Office, who did not want to be identified, said he was not concerned.

"I am not worried, personally - basically, because I can't do anything about it," he said. "The customers are a lot more worried than we are. A few people are refusing to pick up mail. They leave suspicious pieces behind."

At local pharmacies, some customers have even tried to purchase Cipro, the medication that can treat illnesses caused by anthrax. At A & A Pharmacy on Fordham Road, at least three customers have asked for Cipro. "You have to have a prescription," said Aisha Ahmed, who works at the pharmacy. "People want to take it to be on the safe side. But you can't just take it to take it."

Police have probably felt the biggest burden of the anthrax scare. Cops are already working 16-hour days, six days a week, in response to terrorist threats on the city, said Deputy Inspector Raymond Rooney, commander of the 52nd Precinct. Now, they are coping with a flurry of calls about anthrax scares. In one recent week, police got 14 calls from people suspecting anthrax in their mail, Rooney said at an Oct. 18 Precinct Council meeting.

Residents reported powder in magazines and in packages, but companies often use powder to prevent static between pages and as a preservation material, Rooney explained. "People are seeing things they haven't noticed before," he said. "... The biggest terrorist we have right now is ourselves. It's the fear factor."

However, Rooney said if residents do find any suspicious mail or packages, they should put it down exactly where they found it and call police.

Some residents think the anthrax scare has gotten out of control. "There's probably some risk, but being scared is not going to change it," Fordham Bedford resident Greg Roberts said. "I'm just going about my normal business. People are overreacting and the media is making it worse."

On a recent afternoon, except for the use of gloves by postal workers, things seemed normal at the Fordham Post Office. But Roberts and others admitted that that relative sense of normalcy could be turned upside down if the anthrax scare intensifies. "Some people are talking about not coming to work," said the postal worker. "I'm sure if they heard about one incident in the Bronx, a lot of people would not come." Although one Bronx woman from the Crotona section recently died from inhalation anthrax, no New York City post offices have tested positive for anthrax to date.